Computer-based systems enable a wide variety of data processing tasks to be accomplished in a fast and efficient manner. From hand-held consumer products to geographically distributed wide area networks with multi-device data storage arrays, such systems continue to increasingly pervade all areas of society and commerce.
Software is provided to direct the operation of such systems. Software (including firmware) can take a number of forms such as application programs, operating systems, interface and controller routines, and maintenance and housekeeping modules.
Each time a process is initiated by the software, a number of additional processes, handshakes, links, calculations, and other events can be carried out by the various layers of software in order to service and complete the service request. Generally, with increased complexity in the overall software system, including additional layers of software applications and operating systems, distributed processing and fault tolerant redundancy, it becomes increasingly difficult to assess the extent to which system resources are utilized to carry out a given process.